Ok perhaps the name is overly dramatic considering I’m modifying a DRZ but it made me chuckle for a moment. In all seriousness though the project has started in earnest. In recent years there has been a hive of activity in Holland when it comes to Adventure Motorcycling. Whether it is welding extra fuel tanks, luggage racks or prepping suspension the Dutch are the experts. Walter’s bike is currently in Holland being prepped for its 2011 outing.
In my case I found a small photo on Google of a DRZ. I traced it back to a guy called Allan Boerlage and I got in touch with him. He’s a busy man but he kindly offered to create a mould of his custom Rallye screen for the DRZ. We talked about this just before Christmas and I said to him that there really was no rush as I don’t yet have the bike. I said mid February would be fine. Time has flown and here we are, mid Feb. True to his word Allan has produced the fairing and what a beauty it is.
Breaking out of the mould
A quick pull and the finished product begins to emerge
It is black all the way through so won’t require painting
Many thanks Allan!
I’m scheduled to travel to The Netherlands, Germany & Austria in a few weeks so I will be sure to thank Allan in person, share a beer and pay him for his time at the beginning of the 2011 everywherevirtually adventure bike project.
Don’t ask me how I discovered this but the Motion pro tool which has a US patent number of 5778896 stamped on it is filed under the curious title of “Smoking Pipe and Manipulating tool” To be fair the segment with the 8 and 14mm sockets does look like a pipe.
The version I own has the “barrel” of the “pipe” drilled out on the sides thus rendering such smoking activity useless. There is also no connecting tube for smoking activity but with a drilled out centre and some duct tape on the sides I reckon you could be in business in no time.
I have not posted for a long time because there were a number of false starts and idea changes. My circumstances have changed quite a bit and after much thought I stopped compromising on the kind of bike I needed. I was considering a bike that would be a halfway house between going two up and adventure overlanding. Well to be frank that just ain’t going to work.
So for now the requirement has shifted to a significantly lighter 400cc bike that is cheap to run, easy to service and with parts easily available anywhere in the world. That bike is the Suzuki DRZ400SM. yes you read that right, the SM as in Super Moto. I need a bike I can use on the street once in a while and the SM is good for that… check the video below…
As you can see it fly’s pretty well too and I like flying! There will be many detractors on my choice. Some will say it is an old design, others will say it is too heavy (at 295 pounds / 133kg) even though I will be losing 100kg in comparison to my old BMW and some others will say it is too slow. yet more will say that compared to a 600 or 800cc bike the service intervals will be too frequent.
I have checked all the pro’s and cons and for my purposes this is THE perfect bike. It can be easily changed into a dirt bike, it is easy to work on, with limited electronics. Fuel range can be increased quite substantially and my luggage requirements these days are in the realm’s of Dave Lomax etherealness.
Will I be trudging the painfully boring expanses of Europe’s autoroutes, motorways and autobahn’s? No I won’t. I’ve done that, been there and to be honest it is a waste of time and effort. The real fun starts when you get to the perimeters of this continent of ours.
The bike you see below belongs to a friend of mine in Holland and he has very kindly offered to cast a fairing from the same design he has used on this bike.
I like his fuel setup here which is a 17L Safari tank. That said I’m toying with a 17L on the front and a 5L on the rear similar to this configuration.
While 22litres of fuel is more than enough in most places I have a riding style that means I like to keep stops to a minimum and keep on riding. Every fuel stop usually ends up with 30 minutes of faffing about especially if other people are involved. So I am thinking of doing a 28L on the front and a 5L on the rear. The only downside to this is weight if fully fueled up and the 28L suffers from having 5L of fuel you cannot utilize because it needs a vacuum pump to drag it up from the bottom of the tank. If I can sort the pump issues and have some degree of control with regard to the distribution of the fuel front and back then I will go with the bigger tank.
As far as spares and kit goes for the bike I have drawn up a list based on Dave Lomax’s advice after his numerous trips into the deserts and lonely places around the world on a DRZ400.
I’m not talking figuratively here and it is not some obscure reference to bikes although I will include bikes in this post as I do in every other conversation that I have in my life. My girlfriend and brother reckon I should be in the Guinness book of records for turning every conversation to bikes whether it starts off about “hello kitty” or the “Irish economic deficit”
Anyway, I digress. Time to talk about the fat. I’m a fat useless sack of shit and if you ride a giant trailie and are in the 30-50 age range and have eaten like a king for the last decade or so you probably are too.
I’m noticing a trend with my biking buddies that more of them are dying and getting heart attacks than are dying on the road. These are not necessarily obese guys or that old either. I know a guy that had his first heart attack at 42. That is only 4 years away in my case and I can tell you now, I want to be riding into my 80′s!
There is a certain bravado about having a big belly, eating big portions and riding a bike big. Great but I’d rather be lean, strong and riding a big bike. If that goes for you too then you should check out www.marksdailyapple.com and freetheanimal.com to name but two of the most inspiring and popular blogs on losing the flab.
I should point out that this is not some diet fad that gets dropped after a few weeks with a difficult exercise regime in the gym. No this is about cutting out the crap from your daily food intake, like the cans of Red Bull, pies, soft drinks, pastries, sugar and eating food you can indentify like Steak, Salmon, fruit, veg, cheese, cream, butter and all the things we used to enjoy before the marketing executives told us they were bad and what we needed to eat was their mass produced shit like Flora and ready meals that are low on fat, low on taste but high in sugar and salt.
I kid you not. After 3 and a half weeks of doing this I’ve lost have a stone. Exercise has consisted of the odd walk, helping my brother move a few doors, lifting a heavy plant pot inside before the frosts arrive and putting a few things in the attic. I have no willpower and this is effortless for me. I don’t even have to think about it.
So if you think your diet has to be bland and tasteless with consumption of lentils and calorie counting, think again. The following selection of photos is a combination of breakfast, lunch and dinner from the past week.
yes this is allowed too! Remember fat does not make you fat. Sugars and Carbs make you fat!
I was riding up the M40 yesterday, always a joyless experience, when out of the corner of my left eye, I spot a female pheasant. To my immediate left is a large 18 wheeler and in the time it takes to say “dumb bird” it had decided to leave the safety of the grass verge and make a bolt for it.
I thought to myself (in that nano second) that there was no way it would clear the truck. Much to my chagrin it bloody well did and it hit me square in the shin. At 80mph something the size of a chicken packs quite a punch. despite me having armoured motorcycle boots and armoured pants it was like someone had kicked me with a football boot.
It ricocheted off my leg into the wild turmoil that was early evening rush hour. While I didn’t get to see what happened to the dumb bird I’m guessing it was a gonner. I quite literally knocked the crap out of it which was now all over me and the bike and I’m sure it’s demise was swift under the wheels of some vehicle behind.
As I continued on my journey I reflected on the fact that had the bird hit me in the face or chest then perhaps the outcome would not have been so rosy.
For months I’ve ummed and ahhed over what the next adventure bike should be. I’ve read ride reports, I’ve posted photos on the blog, I’ve listened to friends and acquaintances and switched from twins to singles and back to twins again. From 1000CC’s to 400. I’ve thought about buying one stock or making it from the ground up. All of these have been largely pipe dreams since I’ve been out of work. It still is a pipe dream but with one difference. I now know that I will choose the XT660Z Tenere when I am back on my feet.
Unlike the Xmoto that I was going to modify this bike is a bit more of a compromise but more useful. From stock it comes with a 22 litre fuel tank and while it is as weighty as a BMW F800GS the excess weight can be removed. It is also using a tried and tested engine. Electronics are at a minimum and the bike is 80% user serviceable. It gets a lot of great write ups. Parts are cheap compared to BMW and widely available across the world.
In addition to this I fell out with BMW last year and I’m loathed to give them anymore money. Even indirectly as I would be buying used. I’m also tiring of the Ewan and Charley clones who think standing on the pegs of an R1200GS as they ride into the pub car park is off roading. I want to be around people that do amazing things on bikes and for sure you are more likely to see one of these machines in some sand dunes in a far off desert.
Since my minor mishap all the naysayers have come out of the woodwork. All the “I told you motorcycling was dangerous” crowd have either voiced their opinion or certainly thought it. NO. Motorcycling per se is not dangerous. Not looking where you are going, as happened in my case on Sunday, is dangerous.
I think riding 50,000 trouble free miles is pretty good. For the eagle eyed out there who have seen me come off whilst off-roading or riding in the snow. That doesn’t count as if you don’t come off when you are off-roading then you ain’t trying hard enough.
For the stay at home and stay safe crowd, just remember… Laura Ashley died by falling down the stairs. If you are a pedestrian or pedal cyclist you are above motorcyclists in the injury and death stats.
For those that fear for my safety they need not worry because the accidents I have have a similar pattern. I’m never speeding, I take it so easy I’m being called the “tortoise” and some funny buggers are renaming my website “everywhere eventually”. The fact I busted my toe on this occasion is partly down to the annoying geometry of this current bike which I’ve long wanted to fix.
